Fidelity closes Emerging EMEA fund to new investors after Russia plunge

LONDON (Reuters) – Fidelity International will temporarily close its Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund to new investors after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused Russian asset prices to plunge, it said on Monday.

“The war in Ukraine has had a significant impact on market trading and liquidity conditions for Russian securities across some of our portfolios,” Fidelity said in a statement after news of the temporary closure was reported by Citywire.

“Having looked in depth at the options available to us to protect the interests of existing shareholders – Fidelity International has decided to temporarily close the Fidelity Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund (OEIC) to new subscriptions and switches-in.”

The fund’s size is currently estimated to be worth just under 70 million pounds, or $92 million.

Fidelity said existing investors would still be able to exit the fund, and that it would make an announcement if it was able to reopen the fund again to new investors.

Earlier this month, Fidelity had said that it would not invest in Russia and Belarus “for the foreseeable future” and was looking at ways to cut its existing exposure.

($1 = 0.7634 pounds)

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Marc Jones; Editing by Bernadette Baum)